The stunning icon here depicts the martyrs and was created by Egyptian American artist Tony Rezk. It appears on the website for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. From Vatican Radio: The Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that the murder of the 21 Egyptian Christians killed by the so-called Islamic State in Libya will be commemorated in its Church calendar.Pope Tawadros II announced that the names of the martyrs will be inserted into the Coptic Synaxarium, the Oriental Church’s equivalent to the Roman Martyrology. This procedure is also equivalent to canonization in the Latin Church.According to terrasanta.net, the martyrdom of the...

Video of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians being marched along a Libyan beach before being beheaded by black-clad members of ISIS is hard for any civilized person to watch, but experts who made it through the sickening, five-minute clip told FoxNews.com Friday they came to the same conclusion: The footage was faked. No one holds out hope the victims, mostly poor fishermen who had gone to Libya to scratch out a living, are still alive. But several anomalies in the video, which was posted online Feb. 15, indicated to trained eyes that at least some of the production was done on...

It’s Islam. The Religion of Peace. Beheading Christians is the peaceful solution. But after Obama’s regime change in Libya led to the Muslim Brotherhood/Al Qaeda taking over much of the country, the Islamic State beheaded Coptic Christians and Egypt responded by bombing IS.

Vowing to “avenge Egyptian blood,” Egypt’s military forces on Monday unleashed abrupt-yet-foreseeable airstrikes on ISIS targets in Libya. The early-morning bombing came as a rapid response to ISIS’ release of a gruesome video showing the execution of 21 Coptic Christian hostages, who had reportedly been held hostage since January. Egypt is currently not part of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition striking militant targets in Iraq and Syria since August 2014, but events in Libya and a militant insurgency in the Sinai may force President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to ramp up his plan of action. Is Egypt’s aerial campaign a quick, jabbing...

errorism: As in Paris, where the White House insists four Jews in a kosher market were randomly selected for slaughter, the statement condemning IS beheading 21 Egyptians omits a key fact: all were Christians. Speaking of the Chapel Hill, N.C., murder of three Muslims, President Obama, as his FBI began an investigation into whether it was a "hate crime," issued a statement saying that "no one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship." Indeed not. Yet, we could find no such sentiment or statement...

As Obama excuses the advance of radical Islamic Terrorism in action; Refuses to identify Islamic terrorism for what it is: Lead some to believe that the phrase he utters under his breath in cheering the ISIS advance is: “Allahu Akbar”. From Obama’s lips at Washington’s National Prayer Breakfast straight to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). Just one week and a half after President Barack Obama linked the Crusades and Inquisition with “many terrible deeds done in the name of Christ” at the National Prayer Breakfast, ISIS has picked up and run with his meme. A horrific ISIS...

Video Purports To Show ISIS Militants Beheading Christian Hostages February 15, 2015 A video released on Sunday by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State terror group purports to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages. The video, which appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports Islamic State, appears to show militants dressed in blank marching captives to a beach. Before the killings, one of the militants stood holding a knife and said in a North American-accented English: "O Crusaders, safety for you will be only wishes, especially when you’re fighting us all together....

Yahoo Canada News - "HORRIBLE PHOTOS reveal ISIS marched 21 Coptic Christians to beach, beheaded them all" Image via Twitter/ @trscoop / The Right Scoop CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country's chaos. Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead. In the video, militants in black...

CNN) - In a new propaganda video released Sunday by ISIS, the group claims to have beheaded over a dozen members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority on a Libyan beach. The video shows an apparent mass execution with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all are dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them. The five-minute video, released by the terror group's propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with...

Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter tonight to defend 20th Century Fox's new movie "Exodus" that casts Christian Bale as Moses, and a variety of white actors as Egyptians. There’s been scuffle on Twitter ever since Murdoch made his observations. And a lot of this stems from a quote director Ridley Scott gave Variety about why he didn’t use Egyptian or Arab actors for the film. He said: "I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such," Scott says. "I'm just...

Eyewitnesses have given a harrowing account of the murder in Cairo of a young Coptic Christian woman, hauled out of her car and beaten and stabbed to death by a Muslim mob, apparently targeted because of a cross hanging from her rear-view mirror. The incident occurred in the Cairo suburb of Ain Shams after mosque prayer services on Friday, ... 25-year-old Mary Sameh George was attacked in her car near a church, where she planned to deliver medicine to an ill and elderly woman. Protestors climbed onto her car, collapsing the roof, then hauled her from the vehicle, beating and...

The world media is increasingly losing interest in the foreign-fueled war still raging in Syria between the Assad regime and an assortment of Islamist rebel groups backed by the Obama administration, Sunni Arab dictators, and European powers. For embattled Syrian Christians, though — most of whom tried to stay out of the conflict — reports suggest the situation is deteriorating quickly, with over 1,200 documented murders so far, and almost 500,000 forced to flee their homes to escape the escalating violence and ruthless persecution. The real numbers are probably even worse. Experts say the end goal of many jihadist rebel...

As church after church is put to the torch in Egypt by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, one of the things that is going up in flames is the reputation of President Obama. In the past 48 hours alone, some 57 Egyptian churches have been burned to the ground in the Nile valley. It will not be lost on the Egyptians that Mr. Obama has spent the crisis playing golf at Martha’s Vineyard. Scores of Christians are being consumed in this conflagration, some burned beyond recognition defending their churches, even as Mr. Obama’s much-despised envoy in Egypt,...

JERSEY CITY - There's a gruesome double murder mystery in New Jersey. Police say who did it's not a mystery because someone is under arrest but the mystery is why the accused killer cut of two men's heads and hands. The victims are reportedly from Jersey City, but their remains were found buried in a town southwest of Philadelphia. ... police announced an arrest. 28-year-old Yusuf Ibrahim is in custody. Investigators say Ibrahim shot and killed the victims, severed their heads and hands, and buried the remains at a Buena Vista house. Back in Jersey City, friends of the victims...

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a buried Christian empire in the highlands of Yemen, leading to theories that there may have once been a church in Mecca. A stone carving of a Christian figure was found in Zafar, some 581 miles south of Mecca, and is thought to have been made in the era of the Prophet Muhammad. Paul Yule, an archaeologist from Heidelberg in Germany, has dated the 5feet 7inch tall relief which shows a man with chains of jewellery, curls and spherical eyes to around 530AD. ... The figure is barefoot, which was typical of Coptic saints....

The founder of an international group of advocates for the equality and rights of Coptic Christians is appealing to the leaders of democratic nations to cut any ties with Egypt. The Voice of the Copts is attempting to thwart President Mohamed Morsi's regime from implementing a primarily Islamic-based constitution. "We demand that world leaders withdraw their recognition of Egypt's phony 'pro-democracy' leader, Mr. Morsi, who is backed by the illegal Muslim Brotherhood party," states Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, president of Voice of the Copts, in an open letter sent Monday. "Freeze your political relationships with Egypt, halt all investments and aid...

Prominent Christian Egyptians snubbed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday because they feel the U.S. administration favors Islamist parties over secular and liberal forces in society at the expense of Egypt's 8 million Christians. The critical theme was repeated by others Sunday in Cairo and Alexandria despite Clinton denying U.S. interference in Egyptian elections. The politicians, businessmen and clerics who snubbed Clinton were supposed to take part in meetings between Clinton and influential members of civil society. Coptic Christian businessman and politician Naguib Sawiris and three other Coptic politicians said in a statement they were objecting to Clinton's policies...

On the surface, it’s another attack on a Coptic Christian village by a Muslim mob, this time 3,000 of them, burning homes and shops to the ground and looting where they could on January 28th. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police for his protection. But, as Wendy Wright of Christian Freedom International (CFI), can explain, beneath the story is an even greater concern—a systemic case of Christian persecution that is growing...

I recently read an article that said that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world and nowhere more persecuted than in the middle east. Pope Benedict recently expressed concern for the persecution of Christians around the world. Coptic Christians have been repeatedly slaughtered in Egypt, both pre and post Arab Spring.Â Earlier this month Egyptian forces drove over Coptic Christians in military vehicles at a rally in Cairo. ACN reports: Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the...

Here's your final exam question in Middle Eastern studies: A mass of Coptic Christians marches through Cairo to protest the military government's failure to protect them from Muslim radicals. They are attacked by stone-throwing, club-wielding rowdies. Armed forces security personnel intervene, and the Copts fight it out with the soldiers, with two dozen dead and scores injured on both sides. Who is to blame? The full credit answer is: Benjamin Netanyahu, for building apartments in Jerusalem. If that's not what you wrote, don't blame me if you can't get a job at the New York Times. Rarely in the course...

No Way Out: A campaign by Christian Solidarity Worldwide Egyptian Christians need your support now more than ever. After living with the threat of discrimination, harassment or violence for decades, they are highly vulnerable. This long-planned campaign has the chance to bring hope and change to Egypt's Christians as the vital reform process begins. Speak up for Egypt’s Coptic community As peaceful protests turned violent in Cairo this week, we need your help to speak up for Egyptian Christians in the face of increasing sectarian attacks. Peaceful demonstrations led to bloodshed on Sunday as a crowd of thousands of Coptic...

"This will come as news to the Coptic Christians that they're supposed to exercise restraint. They're being attacked, they're the ones being victimized both by mobs of fellow Egyptian citizens who are Muslims and by the government."

The number of dead in clashes between the army and pro-Coptic Christian protesters in Egypt over the weekend rose to at least 25, with at least 272 wounded, a Health Ministry official told CNN Monday. Conflicting reports from the two sides indicated the death toll could be as high as 29 in violence that an army spokesman speculated may have been guided by a "hidden hand" associated with neither side. Many of the casualties had been crushed by speeding military vehicles, said Dr. Adel al-Dawi of the ministry. The violence -- the deadliest in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak...

QENA, Egypt -- When Ayman Anwar Mitri heard his apartment building had burned, the high school administrator rushed to see the damage. He found a crowd of bearded men waiting. They "beat me all over" with charred furniture, recalls Mitri, 47, one of the Coptic Christians who make up 10 to 15 percent of Egypt's 83 million people... "They were chanting, 'There is no god but Allah.' They wanted me to convert to Islam," Mitri says. "... I was on my knees with my hands over my head. It felt like icicles falling on my body, and I prayed." An...

We Islamaphobes are truly a loathsome lot – sowing dissention and hatred wherever we go. But Peter Burr, M.D., recently elected chair of the Williamson County, TN. Democratic Party, is on our case. Last week, Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and a trenchant critic of Islam, spoke at two events in Nashville. In a commentary in the Tennessean (“Outside Agitators Should Not Define American Values”) Burr excoriated Wilders in language Democrats usually reserve for the Tea Parties and the Boy Scouts of America. Anyway, I thought “outside agitators” became passé with Spiro Agnew’s departure from the national...

(AINA) -- According to Father Abram Fahmy, pastor of St. Simon the Tanner Monastery in Mokatam Hills, on the outskirts of Cairo, Copts were killed and injured today in a fresh attack by Muslims. It was reported the Egyptian army fired live ammunition on Copts. The attack has claimed until now the lives of 9 Copts and injured 150, 45 seriously. Muslims threw fire balls at the Monastery from the top of the hills. Coptic youth have arrested five of them, who are now being held within the Monastery grounds, waiting to be handed over to the authorities. [Snip] The...

At least 10 Coptic Christians were shot dead and 110 wounded by gunfire in religious clashes with Muslims in Cairo. The clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted in the poor working class district of Moqattam midafternoon Tuesday when at least 1,000 Christians gathered there to protest the burning of a church last week. Fighting broke out when dozens of Muslims showed up in Moqattam, inhabited by Copts who work as refuse collectors and who had blocked a main north-south artery in the capital. People threw rocks from both sides and witnesses said soldiers at the scene fired shots into the...

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 131 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 214th LEGISLATURE INTRODUCED JANUARY 10, 2011 Sponsored by: Assemblywoman AMY H. HANDLIN District 13 (Middlesex and Monmouth) SYNOPSIS Condemns the religious persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT As introduced. An Assembly Resolution condemning the religious persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Whereas, In the early morning hours of January 1, 2011, a bomb exploded in a Coptic Christian church, killing 21 and wounding nearly 100 worshippers attending a New Year’s Mass in Alexandria, Egypt; and Whereas, The bombing, which left the church bloodstained and scarred with shrapnel from...

Less than two weeks after a church bombing in Alexandria left 21 Coptic Christians dead, an off-duty policeman shot four Christians on a train, killing a 71-year-old man. A fifth person was also wounded. “This lunatic went up and down the coach looking for Christians,” said Coptic Orthodox Bishop Morcos of Shobra El-Kheima, who had spoken with witnesses to the shooting. “Seeing a group of girls and women who were not wearing the [Islamic’ veil, he took them for Christians and fired, shouting Allahu Akbar [Allah is great].” The new attack on Christians came just after the Egyptian government announced...

ELCA Presiding Bishop Addresses Coptic Church Bombing In Egypt 11-002-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), assured the bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles of the ELCA's "heartfelt desire" to stand in solidarity with Coptic Christians in the United States and the world in the wake of the New Year's Day bombing in a Coptic congregation in Egypt. At least 22 people were killed and 79 injured as a result of the car bombing that occurred as worshipers were leaving a Mass at the Church...

On January 1, 2011, a hugely important terror attack took place in Egypt that you probably were not told about. A terrorist bomb went off at the al-Qiddissin (Saints) Church in Alexandria, Egypt, killing innocent civilians in the usual ruthless and bloodthirsty manner. The Western media hardly noticed, but the shock waves rippled through the Muslim and Christian Orthodox world. The Coptic Church in Egypt traces its origins back to the Apostle Mark in A.D. 42. It is one of the earliest churches with a continuous history from the beginnings of Christianity, which rose several centuries before Mohammed and Islam....

NOTE The following text is a quote: Saturday, October 16, 2010 Coptic Organization Warns of Violence Against Copts in Egypt By Jeremy Reynalds Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service EGYPT (ANS) -- Coptic Solidarity, a worldwide Coptic human rights organization, has issued an alarming warning. The Oct. 14 statement says that the alarming upsurge of significant anti-Coptic activities over the recent weeks could eventually “degenerate into wholesale violence against the Copts and their spiritual leaders” in the upcoming volatile period of political changes in Egypt. Reporting for the Assyrian International Agency (AINA), Mary Abdelmassih wrote that the National Election for...

<p>CAIRO — A court in Egypt has ordered the Coptic church to allow its faithful to remarry, quashing an appeal by the head of the church, local media reported on Sunday.</p>
<p>"By law, a Christian can remarry and the constitution guarantees his rights to have a (new) family. The appeal by Pope Shenuda III to prevent Copts from remarrying is rejected," Egypt's High Administrative Court said in its judgement, which can not be appealed.</p>

Recently we have seen a pleasant uptick in cases of Christians taking a stand for Christianity, and against Islam. Hopefully this trend will continue and spread across the world. Egypt Christians call for right to build churches The Associated Press Wednesday, February 3, 2010

US Congressman Stands for the Coptics of Egypt~ Video January 24, 2010 Recently at a mass for the Coptic Christmas in Egypt, Muslims struck with a drive by shooting, killing seven. Finally one US politician has taken a stand against the centuries long persecution of the Coptics in Egypt. Hats off to Albio Sires (D-NJ 13th congressional district.) To view this short video....

A YouTube video clip showing pigs being culled in Egypt as part of swine flu measures has caused outrage at the apparent barbarity of the method of slaughtering the animals. The clip posted by independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom includes gory images of pigs being beaten with iron bars, piglets being stabbed and animals being kicked alive into bulldozer buckets. Since going on line on YouTube this weekend, the clip has sparked horrified reactions from Muslims and from the Christian Copt community, who are the main rearers of pigs in Egypt as Muslims do not eat pork. Although no case of...

CAIRO (AP) — SNIPPET: "The officials said late Sunday night's explosion was caused by[a] primitive bomb planted under a parked car near Saint Mary Church in Cairo's Zeitoun district." SNIPPET: "The bomb went off around 9 p.m. and the car burst into flames while a wedding was under way in the church, causing a panic among passers-by in the mainly Coptic neighborhood, witnesses said."

The Holy Virgin’s church at the mid-Delta town of Mehalla was the scene of Coptic demonstrations this week in the aftermath of the disappearance of 18-year-old Amal Zaki Nessim. Amal went to work as usual last Sunday but never came back. Her colleagues at the Mehalla Spinning and Weaving Company said she left work early that day with a friend who is a fully-veiled Muslim woman named Samah. Amal’s family reported her missing and Samah was questioned by the police but claimed she knew nothing about Amal’s disappearance. The Copts demonstrated in wrath, demanding that the police find Amal and...

An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity has gone into hiding, facing death threats after he launched an attempt to get official recognition of his change of religion, an unprecedented step in this conservative Islamic nation. An Islamist cleric has vowed to seek Mohammed Hegazy's execution as an apostate, his family has shunned him, and Hegazy raised a storm of controversy when pictures of him posing for journalists with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in the newspapers. Hegazy said he received death threats ... he lives with his wife, who is also a convert from Islam and...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- One person is dead and more than a dozen others wounded in attacks on worshipers today at three Coptic Christian churches in Egypt. The simultaneous assaults in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria were carried out during Friday Mass by knife-wielding assailants. Police have set up checkpoints but the attackers got away. At least two of 17 people hurt are in serious condition.

Fearing a repeat of the recent riots against the Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt, which left four dead, more than 80 wounded and seven churches defaced, leaders of the Coptic church in the United States are calling on the U.S. government and the United Nations to take immediate action to stop the bloodshed and destruction of churches. Exclusive video footage released by the International Christian Union and American Coptic Association, or ICU/ACA, yesterday reveals the destruction of the Assemblies of God Church for Evangelical Copts in Moharam Bek on Friday, Oct. 21. An e-mail report from Dr. Monir Dawoud, president...

Here's my letter to Kenneth Chan of the Christian Post. They seem to be doing everything they can to pretend there is no religious angle to the New Jersey killings. Please write Mr. Chan (kenneth@christianpost.com) and encourage him to dig a bit deeper: Dear Mr. Chan, Your article in the Christian post, published under the title "Christians, Muslims call for Unity in New Jersey," only included, that I could tell, a single comment from a single Episcopalian minister, but no updated response from Coptic clergy in the area. Did I miss something? Have you pressed federal and local authorities for...

Waving flags and shouting, "God bless America," about 100 Coptic Christians from Egypt held an impromptu rally outside of their church on Bergen Avenue in Jersey City yesterday, expressing support for America and denouncing terrorism."This is out of our own feeling," said Jacob Keryakes, 31, a member of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate Church, located a few blocks from Journal Square."It's a show of our support and solidarity for America, because we know how it feels to be victims of terror."

Four family members slain in their Jersey City home JERSEY CITY, N.J.— Four family members were found slain in their home Friday morning. All were bound and gagged, and their throats were slashed, First Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Gaetano T. Gregory said. Jersey City police broke down the door to the home about 4 a.m. after concerned relatives said they had not heard from the family for several days, authorities said. The victims were Hossam Armanious, 46; his wife, Amal Garas, 36; and their daughters, Sylvia Armanious, 16, and Monica Armanious, 8. No arrests had been made as of...